The Bigger Man
by Lumpy1
Summary: In which Naruto finds out that Sakura is dating Gaara. Well... Sort of. Possibly? Maybe? Definitely. Oneshot. R/R please.


**The Bigger Man**

ONE-SHOT

Characters: Naruto, Gaara and Sakura (mainly)

Disclaimer: Naruto characters aren't mine.

Warning: Angst? A little on Naruto's part.

* * *

He'd seen them again today.

Together.

Looking so comfortable in each other's company that it made a sharp stab of jealousy slam forcefully into his gut.

The first time he'd noticed that they were spending more time together was when Sakura went on her second visit to Suna. Her second in as many weeks. When she came back she looked happy and excited over something but no matter how much he nagged and begged her she wouldn't tell him why.

Two days ago Gaara and his siblings had arrived to Konoha and Naruto didn't miss that he hadn't been alone in greeting them. Sure there had been loads of other people there too – Gaara was the Kazekage after all so it was an occasion worth witnessing for a lot of people. Bushy Brows had dampened the mood a little when he'd insisted on attempting to give Gaara a bear hug – a move that Gaara's ever present sand must have interpreted as an attack because the guy had rushed headfirst into a wall of sand. Or perhaps it hadn't been so automatic after all, Naruto had later thought.

But Sakura had been there, smiling and greeting the siblings warmly. Then she'd said something that confirmed Naruto's every fear: "See you later."

As in she already had a set date with them. Or with one of them. A date.

Judging from the fact that Temari had gone off with Shikamaru quickly enough he'd figured it wasn't some girl thing, which had only left Gaara and Kankurou. So when he'd seen Sakura rushing out of her home that evening (he'd just happened to be sitting on a nearby roof… for some hours) he'd followed her and he'd seen her meet Gaara down in the shopping district. Still he'd thought that maybe he was reading too much into this, maybe he was wrong, maybe there was some perfectly innocent explanation to all this.

But then he'd seen them again today, walking into a restaurant and looking so very comfortable together, and Naruto had to face the facts. Gaara and Sakura were dating.

Once again Naruto was left on the outside.

Feeling very sorry for himself Naruto rested his chin against his palm and gazed forlornly out over the rooftops of Konoha. It was mid-day and the sun was shining brightly, and despite it being October already it was still as warm as it had been in the middle of July. It was one of those picture perfect days with singing birds and a gentle breeze and all it did was make him feel miserable. Even sitting high up on one of the water containers didn't help; usually it would when he felt like this. Usually the sight of Konoha and imagining one day being its Hokage would snap him out of any long suffering angst.

Sighing heavily he hung his head and started, right there walking below him was Gaara. It wasn't as it he was difficult to find in a crowd – that hair shone like a beacon. A stupid, red beacon, an unwanted thought whispered in the back of his mind.

The Kazekage didn't seem to be in any hurry anymore than he seemed to notice the people around him watching him avidly. How often would one find the Kage of a rivalling village strolling through the streets as if he felt right at home? Of course he'd draw attention.

Naruto watched him walking down the street; feeling very conflicted about what to do. There was a part of him, a very childish part, which wanted to jump down there and punch him. Really, really hard. Because not only had Gaara managed to achieve his dream by becoming the Kazekage long before Naruto would be able to make Hokage (and he would! Believe it!) but he'd also snatched Sakura. Sakura, the girl he adored so much it hurt. The one he'd been trying to make interested in him for years, somehow Gaara had swooped in there and just… stole her.

Thieving, stupid redhead, he thought moodily. That stupid hair might as well have been a bull's eye, anyway. The second he thought that Naruto felt horrible. And that was the conflicting part; No matter how much he hurt over this Gaara and Sakura were his friends. He'd seen their pain, many times, and his deepest wish was for them to not hurt anymore. So what should he do?

Should he interfere?

Or should he let them be?

Both scenarios hurt.

Standing up abruptly Naruto turned his gaze towards the stone carved faces of the previous and current Hokage. After a while he nodded with determination and jumped down from the water container. He ran to catch up to his friend below before jumping down on the street a few meters ahead of the redhead.

"Gaara." Naruto said sombrely, gaining his friend's attention. He'd been looking into a store window but now he straightened and turned his way.

"Naruto." The redhead replied, face impassive. For a moment neither said anything, mainly because Naruto didn't know what to say and he knew for a fact that Gaara could stand there all day waiting until he thought something up.

"Hey." Naruto said, forcing himself to smile. "It's been a long time, huh?"

Gaara tilted his head and regarded him. "Is something wrong?"

"No! No, of course not! What could be wrong?" Naruto replied quickly, grinning. When the look in his friend's eyes clearly told him that he wasn't buying it Naruto decided it was time to stop pretending. Slumping his shoulders a little he sighed. "Look. I know what's going on and… I just wanted to tell you that… I don't blame you. You're great; a really great guy Gaara. I just…" he sighed again, hesitant about how to continue. Gaara's blank face didn't help at all, so Naruto stood straighter. "Take care of her, alright?"

Seeing that his friend was about to reply Naruto decided that it was time to leave (he didn't want to hear it right now), so he leapt up and ran across the roofs.

He'd meant what he'd said: He didn't blame Gaara, and he didn't blame Sakura – how could he? They were two of his best friends and if they were happy together… he'd never want to destroy that!

That said, it didn't mean that it didn't hurt. A lot. He'd been mooning after Sakura since what felt like forever – she'd never had eyes for him of course but he'd always thought that if he just applied himself eventually she might. She'd only ever had eyes for Sasuke though, even when he wasn't even there to set eyes upon, and he'd grown to accept that. To know that she had finally moved on from Sasuke only to fall into Gaara's arms – ignoring him once again – hurt.

Perhaps it was for the best if he just avoided them for a while, until he could put this event aside too, he thought and steered his way to the forest. He'd train for a while – burn the frustration out of his system before going home to feel sorry for himself.

* * *

Bang!

Naruto jumped back to take a proper look at his handiwork. In the past three hours he'd made several gaping holes in the ground with exploding tags, riddled several trees with shuriken and kunai and created a new clearing in the forest with the rasengan. He'd had a lot of frustration to burn.

"Oi, Naruto." Shikamaru's lazy drawl interrupted him.

"Shikamaru…" Naruto responded half-heartedly. He wasn't really feeling up to company right at that moment. "Hey."

"Quite a mess." Shikamaru commented his battlefield. "I suppose it's alright since no one's going to have to clean it up."

Naruto sighed, hanging his head. Leave it to Shikamaru to only think of the troublesome cleanup duty.

"Come on." Shikamaru said, already moving to walk away.

"That's alright." Naruto said. "I want to continue training for a while."

"It's almost dark." Shikamaru countered and when he got no response he heaved a heavy sigh. "Alright, I'll treat you to a bowl of ramen."

Naruto's head shot up.

True he felt miserable and this had been an awful day on every level, but… he'd never turned down a free bowl of ramen in his life. Smiling a little he decided that this wouldn't be the day that he started either.

* * *

"Why _not_ Ichiraku's?" Naruto asked again while the other shinobi lead him into another restaurant. "They've got the best ramen in the village!"

The lady standing behind the desk of the rather posh restaurant sent him a glare at that, which he ignored. He wasn't lying! No one could beat Ichiraku's ramen!

"I don't feel like it." Shikamaru replied, sending him a lazy look. "And since I'm paying I should have a say in where we eat."

"How much do you earn anyway?" Naruto grumbled when the hostess showed them through the main dining room. It was really, really posh. With really, really rich people in it.

"Enough." Shikamaru replied when the hostess opened another room and showed them inside.

"Happy Birthday!" A chorus of voices cried the moment Naruto stepped into the room. Any protest died on his lips and he just stared.

"Huh?"

In the room, surrounding the table were his friends. All of them sitting around a table with an assortment of food, heavily leaning towards ramen. Many, many different types of ramen.

"It's your birthday, dummy." Ino said. "Don't you ever check your calendar?"

"Or didn't you notice the fact that there's a huge carnival* taking place outside?" Temari added with a smirk.

"Tsk, Naruto, really…" Sakura sighed and made her way to him. "We've been running ourselves ragged to get this party together and you don't even remember. Gaara, Temari and Kankurou even had to arrange for an official meeting with lady Tsunade so that they could come here. "

"And it wasn't easy, dumbass!" Kankurou said with a smirk. "The council's not too keen on letting all three of us out of the village nowadays."

Temari made a sound that sounded suspiciously a lot like "bastards" in agreement. Gaara closed his eyes, ignoring the way Temari smirked when Kankurou toasted her with his drink.

"And to think we went shopping for you yesterday." Sakura said, shaking her head with mock sadness. That caught his attention, not the head shaking part but the 'shopping for you' and 'yesterday' part. His eyes widened.

"Wait… you guys aren't dating?" Naruto blurted out.

"Who?" Ino asked quickly, sitting up straight now that a bit of gossip was on the table.

"Sakura and Gaara!" Naruto exclaimed.

Kankurou promptly choked on his drink.

"What?" Temari, Ino and Kiba snapped simultaneously, staring at first Gaara and then Sakura. Gaara's face was blank although his gaze was suddenly very focused on him while Sakura looked ready to choke on her own tongue.

"What made you think we're dating, you knucklehead?" Sakura barked after a moment of shocked silence.

"But… but you went to a romantic lunch and-"

"You guys were on a romantic lunch?" Ino asked, eyes wide and nearly gleaming from sheer joy at the new piece of juicy gossip.

"Odd couple." Sai commented, flipping through a book. "According to this two people involved romantically should compliment each other. And long distance relationships are always discouraged."

"I think they might compliment each other." Choji chimed in, although most of his focus seemed to be on the food in front of him. "Like pork and noodles."

Ino laughed at that. "And Sakura must be the pork."

"Shut up, Ino-pig! We weren't on some romantic lunch, we went to book this room for _you_, you idiot! And there was nothing romantic about it!" Sakura yelled, thumping him hard on the head. "Who the hell wouldn't give the _Kazekage_ the best room in the restaurant?"

"Ouch! Sakura that hurt!" Naruto complained. "Gaara why didn't you tell me you guys weren't dating?"

The redhead, face impassive as ever, replied: "I didn't know you thought that."

"I told you a few hours ago." Naruto accused him.

"That was what you were talking about…" Gaara mumbled tilting his head in thought.

Naruto pursed his lips and glared at him. In his opinion it should've been obvious to Gaara what the hell he'd been talking about, he'd clearly said… wait, what had he said? Oh… maybe he hadn't been so clear.

Suddenly the whole situation seemed so ridiculous that he couldn't help but to start laughing. Man, he really was a knucklehead, wasn't he? He'd almost levelled a forest for nothing. But that was alright, he decided, because he had a whole bunch of friends that liked him just the way he was. Knucklehead and all.

"Let's eat." Neji said, shaking his head, and Naruto, still chuckling, happily sank down next to him.

"Thanks guys," He said while they all settled into their seats and reached for the food. Smiling brightly he took a moment to look at each of his friends' faces, trying to commit this awesome moment to memory. "This is the best birthday ever."

* * *

**Author's notes:** Bah, don't ask where this came from. Stupid thought that wouldn't get out of my head is all.

No, I can't see Sakura and Gaara as a couple but that's just me. Personally I tend to think of Gaara as kind of asexual, but again that's just me. Anyhow, Naruto got a great birthday and in the end I think that's what matters. :P

I hope Naruto didn't come out as looking too dumb – I don't think of him as dumb, just kind of impulsive and sometimes quick to jump to conclusions.

Huh, I just realised I forgot about Shino, Hinata and Rock Lee… Oh well. Maybe they showed up late.

*The carnival Temari was talking about would be the annual party of Kuuybi's defeat - I have some vague idea that they have that. Don't they? Otherwise they just had it this year.

*Haha, I'm such a knucklehead - I went through the trouble of checking Naruto's date of birth before writing this story: October 10th I think. But when I sit down and write it I still write that it's in September. Thank you, kind reviewer that pointed this out to me. Anyway, it's fixed now so all's well that ends well I hope.

Anyway, please leave a _review_ (they make me happy).


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